Apple M5 Pro 18-Core
The Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) is a high-end system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed for premium laptops, introduced in March 2026 alongside the updated 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro lineup. Built on Apple's all-new "Fusion Architecture" utilizing a third-generation 3-nanometer process, the SoC uses advanced packaging to combine two dies into a single chip using SoIC-mH (by TSMC according to rumors).
Architecture and CPU Performance
The M5 Pro shifts Apple's core naming conventions and features an 18-core CPU setup. It combines 6 "Super Cores"—which deliver the world's fastest single-threaded performance via an enhanced cache hierarchy and increased front-end bandwidth—with 12 "Performance Cores" optimized for power-efficient multithreaded processing. According to Apple, this new configuration results in up to a 30% increase in multithreaded performance for demanding pro workloads compared to the M4 Pro.
Compared to other SoCs, the 18-core M5 Pro should be able to outperform the older 16-core M4 Max, positioning itself at the top of the mobile SoC class. In terms of single-core performance, the M5 Pro should deliver comparable results to the Apple M5, which topped our charts in Geekbench 6.5 Single, for example (ahead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 and the M4 SoCs).
For graphics, the SoC scales up to a next-generation 20-core GPU. It features an enhanced shader core, second-generation dynamic caching, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading. This delivers up to 20% higher raw graphics performance than the M4 Pro.
Additionally, the chip boasts a nice bump in AI performance. By integrating a faster 16-core Neural Engine and placing dedicated Neural Accelerators inside each GPU core, the M5 Pro pushes over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to its predecessor.
The M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 307 GB/s. The SoC also packs Apple’s latest Media Engine (supporting hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, AV1 decoding, and ProRes encode/decode) and introduces native, on-chip controllers for Thunderbolt 5, allowing for unprecedented high-speed I/O connectivity.
The SoC is manufactured in the modern 3nm process at TSMC (N3P).
| Series | Apple M5 | ||||||||
Series: M5
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| Clock Rate | 3048 - 4608 MHz | ||||||||
| Number of Cores / Threads | 18 / 18 6 x 4.6 GHz Apple M5 S-Core 12 x Apple M5 P-Core | ||||||||
| Manufacturing Technology | 3 nm | ||||||||
| 64 Bit | 64 Bit support | ||||||||
| Architecture | ARM | ||||||||
| Announcement Date | 03/03/2026 | ||||||||
| Product Link (external) | www.apple.com | ||||||||
Benchmarks
- Average benchmark values* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
- $2,699.00Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU: Built for AI, 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display, 24GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7; Space Black
- $2,699.00Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU: Built for AI, 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display, 24GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7; Silver
- $3,099.00Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU: Built for AI, 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display, 48GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7; Space Black
- $3,078.00Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU: Built for AI, 14.2-inch Display, 24GB Unified Memory, 2TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7; Space Black with AppleCare+ (3 Years)
- $3,078.00Apple 2026 MacBook Pro Laptop with Apple M5 Pro chip with 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU: Built for AI, 14.2-inch Display, 24GB Unified Memory, 2TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7; Silver with AppleCare+ (3 Years)
No reviews found for this CPU (yet).
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